


What Strength Means to Me

by SpunSugar



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Gotta show up the Dads, In Which Yuri and Otabek Prepare for a Pairs Routine, M/M, Mild Angst Implied, Young Love, blossoming feelings, cursing, victor coaching yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 22:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16206614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpunSugar/pseuds/SpunSugar
Summary: Victor is coaching Yuri P. for an upcoming pairs skate with Otabek. Victor is having way too much fun being a nuisance, but maybe there's a method to it, after all.





	What Strength Means to Me

Victor snapped his slim fingers in front of Yuri’s face.

“You’re not. Concentrating.”

“ARGH-!” Yuri swatted Victor’s hand away with the full force of his body, skates angrily scratching the ice. “I can’t fucking think when you keep interrupting me halfway through!”

“There’s no point running through the whole routine like this when you still haven’t gotten the transitions down.” Victor glided backwards effortlessly, making lazy semi-circles as he regarded the younger skater. “Let’s take a break and focus on the emotional aspects of the piece.”

Yuri’s muscles tensed.

“We already talked about that. The theme is ‘finding strength.’ Otabek likes this kind of dramatic, somber music, so we just picked a theme that-”

“I’m not asking for the logistics. What are you thinking about while you’re skating?”

“I’m thinking even Yakov is less distracting…” Yuri grumbled.

“Well, you could ask _him_ for help, but I don’t think you’ll last long, the way you’ve been complaining.”

“I don’t know, okay? I’m focusing on landing my jumps. Not making mistakes.”

Victor’s steel blue eyes were glinting.

“You’re standing still now, so take my questions seriously.”

Yuri huffed.

“What does ‘strength’ mean to you?”

Yuri really didn’t like the way that Victor looked at people. It was one of the reasons they never got along. Victor was always watching like he knew too much.

“It’s… doing whatever you need to do. Never stopping. Not being afraid of anything.”

Victor’s mouth was concealed by one of his hands.

“And why do you want to skate this routine with Otabek?”

“You’ve skated publicly with Katsudon. Beka’s my friend. Why can’t I?”

“It’s not a competition, but you’re aware it will be controversial…? Even more eyes will be on you since the Grand Prix Final.”

“Like I give a shit about that.”

“His flight arrives tomorrow, correct? Will you feel confident jumping into practice together when you haven’t been able to skate a flawless run yet? You obviously don’t care very much about the end result.”

“I can do it without you constantly harassing me! Beka doesn’t spend hours interrogating me like this. He actually trusts me!”

“You find it easier to skate with him than me?” Victor asked, visibly amused.

Yuri laughed obnoxiously. “What do you think? He’s a normal human being so I’m not physically repelled by him. When we skate, it’s not all stiff and forced.”

“That’s hard to imagine. You were skating like a machine all practice long.”

“It’s your fault,” Yuri spat.

“In that case, I’ll sit this one out and observe. Show me some of the step sequence. Imagine he’s here and show me you’re not just making excuses.”

Victor breezed over to the stands, pressed ‘play’ on the beat-up CD player and took a seat, crossing his legs and clasping his hands, far too comfortable.

Yuri took a deep breath and tried to shake off the irritation. The sounds of the violin and slow piano echoing in the huge, empty rink suddenly felt haunting. It was just him this time.

Slowly, he moved his feet, the motion stirring up the memory of the hotel room- _lying on his back on Otabek’s bed, sharing his earphones, looking silently up at the Kazakh skater from the corner of his eye, listening to this song for the first time on Otabek’s phone._

_Why had Otabek picked such a sad song for their pairs skate? Yuri normally couldn’t stand this type of music. He found it boring and… agitating somehow._

_He watched Otabek sitting on the edge of the hotel bed with his eyes closed. Yuri’s body felt strangely heavy. It was as if he was sinking into this moment, trapped in time, trapped in this room forever with Otabek. It should have scared him, feeling cemented into something he didn’t understand... His heart felt like it was working harder than usual, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. Yuri startled when the 6-minute-long song was cut off by a noisy ad._

“Much better, Yuri!” Victor stopped the music, giving a sharp clap.

“See? I told you,” Yuri snapped, coming back to reality as Victor skated over.

“Yes, yes,” Victor waved him off cheerfully. “Now prove to me you can focus with a partner.”

“I told you, I could do it with Otabek-”

Victor looked unreasonably smug. He stooped slightly to kiss Yuri on the top of the head, ruffling his hair with the speed of an assassin before shooting off across the rink.

“It’s good to know there’s some softness in you, Yurio~!” Victor called out in an airy voice.

“What the- fu- you bastard! Gross!” Yuri shrieked, chasing after him.

Victor was laughing heartily.

“I’ll kill you!”

“Ah, youth~!”


End file.
